Isaiah 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides me there is no god. I arm you, though you do not know me, 6 so that they may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other. 7 I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the LORD do all these things.

Through these words from Isaiah, God is reminding Israel that both the tragedies they are experiencing, and the salvation to come, are God’s doing. Some other god didn’t do it. It wasn’t a human creation. It was God. The good and the bad. I’m drawn this morning to verse 7:

“I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things”. 

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time this is a common theme. Our cultural theology which says “God is love” is not wrong, it’s just overly simplistic. As the bible repeatedly reveals to us, God is indeed love, but many other things as well – not all of them pleasant.